Rechercher

Hội thảo nghiên cứu của Viện

mis à jour le 10 avril 2018

Our research seminar receives research scholars from other French institutions as well as visiting research scholars from abroad. Sessions are usually scheduled for Thursday afternoons between 2 pm and 3.30 pm. The seminar is open to all persons involved in teaching, research and Asian studies. The seminar program is coordinated by Arnaud Nanta.

Roel Sterckx is Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science and Civilisation at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Clare College. His publications include The Animal and the Daemon in Early China (SUNY Press, 2002) and Food, Sacrifice and Sagehood in Early China (Cambridge University Press, 2011. With Romain Graziani, he co-edited De l’Esprit aux Esprits : Enquête sur la notion de shen en Chine (Saint-Denis : Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 2007). In 2013 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy.

Abstract : In early China the language used to describe agricultural life was a much used medium for social and political commentary. Philosophical, literary, and ritual texts contain a repository of figurative language in the form of agronomic metaphors and analogies. In this lecture we will explore how agriculture figures in the language of Chinese “philosophical” discourse, and what, if anything, the masters of philosophy teach us about agriculture. Rather than approaching figurative language as a purely literary or rhetorical device aimed at making a moral or philosophical point, I suggest that we ought to be open to the possibility that agronomic metaphors and analogies belonged to the normal register of tools used to analyse and describe nature and the management of natural resources in ancient China. They served as didactic devices to convey social and political ideas and perhaps even to transmit a modicum of technical knowledge. I will present a range of examples that offer different interpretative possibilities.

Abstract : This research seminar is devoted to uncover economic development peculiarities of Central Asian countries in the context of contemporary integration and globalization processes. The author’s view on the model of economic reforms of Central Asian countries will be presented. She will describe reasons behind economic failure of the region since their independence, and discuss its economic development prospects. Special attention during the seminar will be paid to economic challenges of membership of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), as well as to disputes of possible accession of other CA countries to the EEU. The author will also concentrate on some economic implications for CA countries within the China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative framework (“new silk road”).

Abstract : In tourism studies fans and their consumption choices are, in the main, considered in terms of the relationship between the devotees, the cultural product(s) and tourism. This study begins with a more distant causal factor, to wit, soft power. Encouraged by the international popularity of Hallyu, South Korea supports their sources of attractive power to advance national interests. To be sure, Hallyu is an explanatory factor in the soft power ratings that South Korea enjoys, perhaps most notably in Indonesia. However, measurement of soft power largely relies on macro-level aggregated data sets that are rather blunt instruments. Alternative approaches are called for and, to this end, the present ethnographic study employs in-depth interviews of Indonesians to provide a more nuanced understanding of the fan learning process, their consumption choices and what this means for Korean soft power policy.

Abstract : Bangkok was once representative of Asia’s water-based civilization. Located in a tropical and low-lying land of the Chao Phraya river basin, Bangkok developed harmonious relationships with its geo-climatic conditions. In the past, annual floods and high tides were welcomed by local farmers as supplementary irrigation. The land was painstakingly prepared for receiving water by digging canals and raising houses on piles.

Unfortunately, Bangkok lost most of its distinctive characters in the rapid urbanization process. Since the 1960s, many waterways have been replaced by roads in the urban areas, while agricultural lands wereturned into suburban housing. Uncoordinated modern urban development clashes with natural conditions, causing floods of alarming magnitude.

After an analysis of this situation, various attempts to alleviate the problem will be presented as they appear in the third revised Bangkok Comprehensive Plan to preserve and increase the water retention areas.

"Rough Terrain : Tactics and Technical Issues in Alpine Warfare in the High Qing Period"

Ulrich Theobald (Ph.D. 2009) is a senior lecturer at the Department for Chinese and Korean Studies of the University of
Tübingen, Germany. He is specializing in the economic, military, monetary and administrative history of late imperial China, and author of "War Finance and Logistics in Late Imperial China : A Study of the Second Jinchuan Campaign (Brill 2013)".

Abstract : Ulrich Theobald will analyze the tactics and technology of alpine warfare in the mid- and late eighteenth century in China,
during the conquest of the eastern parts of Tibet. The report deals mainly with the problems researchers are confronted with when studying contemporary sources. This relates to descriptions of local situations, tactical movements and methods to conquer fortified houses and monasteries, and the problems described in bringing in and applying artillery. Apart from narrative descriptions, administrative
sources and illustrations can be used as historiographical sources. The speaker will show ways how to deal with technical vocabulary not available in dictionaries.

Abstract : This paper provides the first quantitative analysis of Vietnam’s 1944-1945 great famine which claimed the lives of over a million people in Tonkin and North Annam and was instrumental in the August 1945 Viet Minh and communist revolution. Competing and hitherto unsatisfactory explanations have put the famine down to the weather, French or Japanese administrative failures, and US aerial bombardment. I show that famine, although made worse by wartime events, resulted from successive typhoons that struck coastal areas and was caused by a consequent food availability deficit. Econometric analysis reveals that differences in endowments and entitlements largely explain who died.

Abstract : In recent years, there are some new trends in the historical research of the Yangtze Delta. The research of the regional history during modern and contemporary era is getting more popularity. Chinese historians have found more new research subjects and new research fields. Besides the expansion of research topics, new historical documents have been collected in this research field, which include archives, diaries, genealogies, account books, oral historical documents, maps, photos and videos, etc. Meanwhile, research methods regarding the study of the regional history of the Delta have been updated. More historians begin to be engaged in social surveys and to do historical fieldwork in this region.

Professor Dong will present in this seminar the main research topics in current China about the Yangtze delta and the different sources used by Chinese researchers in the field of history.

Wednesday 6 April 2016, meeting room R66, 2 pm to 3.30 pm

"Smallpox and diverging demographical trends in Southeast Asia"

Ulbe Bosma, Senior Researcher IISH, Professor of International and Comparative Social History VU University Amsterdam

Abstract : Nineteenth century demographic growth of Southeast Asia varied considerably within a space that was rather homogeneous in terms of per capita income. The northern Philippines and Java knew for example very high growth figures, while most of the Malay peninsula and the Outer Islands of Indonesia only experienced marginal demographic growth or even stagnation. A crucial, and probably undervalued, factor was the uneven dissemination of inoculation and vaccination techniques in the struggle against smallpox. How did these vaccination regimes vary and what can we say about their impact on demographic growth ?

"By-employment and Economic Growth : A Case of Pre-war Japan and International Comparison"

Tokihiko Settsu, Visiting Scholar, CAMPOP and Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Musashi University

Abstract : This presentation aims to offer new estimates of gainfully occupied workers in Japan between 1874 and 1940. The estimates are made by taking explicitly widespread farm-family by-employment into account, and then they will be allocated into the primary, secondary and tertiary (PST) sectors. With the new workforce statistics, we would also like to examine the levels of differentials in average labour productivity between the three sectors. We will show that labour productivity differentials between agriculture and manufacturing in early stages of Japan’s industrialisation were not as wide as both Gerschenkronian and dual structurist arguments tended to assume for late industrialisers. Finally, we also discuss how by-employment functioned along with economic development in other countries (especially, in East Asian and European countries) in comparison with the case of Japan.

Purwo Santoso, Professor, Department of Politics and Government, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract : The third assessment for mapping out challenges and opportunitis for furthur democratizing Indonesia has been conducted by Gadjah Mada University within its collaboration with University of Oslo, confirming the the country’s impressive achievement has been at halt. While the country has sufficiently laid down democratic governance, its basis for becoming more democratic is not easy given the reliance of stong actors, instead of institutional setup. Professor

Purwo Santoso, the Program Director of the assessment scheme, will share the deail in more detail, by tunching upon three key issues, namely : (1) citizenship and the sense of public, (2) local regime, and (3) welfare regime.

Kyoji Fukao, Professor of economics, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University ; Program Director, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI)

Abstract : Although Japan had largely resolved the problem of non-performing loan by the early 2000s, economic growth hardly accelerated, resulting in what now are “two lost decades.” This paper examines the underlying reasons from a long-term and structural
perspective using a KLEMS-type database and micro-level data. Major issues examined include the chronic lack of domestic demand since the mid-1970s caused by the long-run decline in capital formation through the slowdown in the growth of the working age population as well as the resulting current account surplus and yen appreciation, and supply-side issues such as slow TFP growth due to Japan’s low
economic metabolism. A key finding is that while large firms’ TFP growth since the mid-1990s has outstripped that in the 1980s as a result of research and development (R&D) and internationalization, the TFP of small firms has stagnated. The analysis further shows that the reason why small firms’ TFP growth has lagged behind probably
is their sluggish investment in R&D and information and telecommunication technology as well as a decline of technology spillovers from large firms [PDF].

Abstract : Sheep rearing is a staple sector in Western China, especially in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia. However, the majority of the Chinese population has shown little interest in woolen clothes, preferring padded cotton and furs to seek protection from the cold. When several Chinese ports were opened to foreign trade in the mid-19th Century, British traders unloaded woolen fabrics for the Chinese market. However, despite their high ambitions of clothing 400 million of consumers, their sales were rather limited to the treaty ports. Meanwhile, American merchants engaged in exporting raw wool to supply their carpet manufacturing industry, and the Japanese strengthened wool rearing in the Manchu regions and Shandong. Before the First World War, all Chinese attempts to engage in producing mass woolen cloth for the Chinese population failed. Despite ensuring contracts for the Qing and Republican armies, these first industrial undertakings closed short after their foundation and it was only in the 1920s and 1930s when some woolen companies of the Yangzi Delta and Tianjin developed factories with the strength to compete against the British goods in the treaty ports. But these more successful experiments were not focused towards the majority of the Chinese population, but rather to the more sophisticated urban markets of the coast, like Shanghai, which became the textile industry and modern consumption center. Besides, these woolen companies did not use raw wools from the Western regions, that kept being exported, but they preferred to use imported finer wools. As a conclusion, the evolution of the Chinese woolen industry shows the problems and dilemmas of China’s modernization, such as the regional unbalances and country’s progressive integration into the international economy.

Monday 14 september 2015, meeting room R66, 3.30 pm to 5 pm

"Dissent and Its Enemies in Shanghai and Hong Kong, 1945-2015"

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor of History at the University of California at Irvine and the author of several books, including Student Protests in Twentieth-Century China (1991), Global Shanghai , 18500-2010 (2009), and China in the 21st Century (2010 and 2013 editions). His commentaries and reviews have appeared in many newspapers, magazines and online publications, from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to New Left Review and Internazionale. He edits the Journal of Asian Studies, is an advising editor on China for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is on the editorial board of Dissent Magazine.

Abstract : This talk will look at recurring themes in protest and repression in Greater China, focusing in particular on the ideas and actions of students and young intellectuals in two of Asia’s most cosmopolitan cities. A starting point will be Shanghai protests and counter-protests during the Civil War era (1945-1949), while an end point will be the Hong Kong events of the last year, which the presenter briefly observed firsthand. Some attention will also be paid to events in between, from the Shanghai protests of 1986, which once again the presenter observed directly, to the Hong Kong demonstrations of 2012.

Abstract : Since the fall of Suharto (1998) Indonesia’s labour movement has undergone a fundamental transition from a semi-clandestine oppositional force to the poster-child of the global unions. Where once they were excluded from all but the most formalistic manifestations of tripartism, trade unions now play a substantive role not only workplace bargaining and wage-setting mechanisms, but also in public policy debates and even formal politics. This paper places the transformation of the Indonesian labour movement in comparative perspective, with reference to the experiences of seven other Southeast Asian countries. It argues that key factors distinguishing the Indonesian case from others in the region include the strength of grassroots organizing in the late Suharto period, international support for new trade unions and the broadening of trade union agendas beyond the economic scope prescribed for them by Suharto’s New Order regime.

Thursday 30 April 2015, meeting room R66, 2 pm to 3.30 pm

"China, Europe and the Great Divergence : A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850"

Abstract : GDP is estimated for China between the late tenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, and combined with population estimates. Chinese GDP per capita was highest during the Northern Song dynasty and declined during the Ming and Qing dynasties. China led the world in living standards during the Northern Song dynasty, but had fallen behind Italy by 1300. At this stage, it is possible that the Yangzi delta was still on a par with the richest parts of Europe, but by 1700 the gap was too large to be bridged by regional variation within China and the Great Divergence had already begun. [PDF]

Abstract : Dafeng was the first company to engage in industrial mercerizing in China. Having started as a workshop, it developed industrial capacity in 1921 with the construction of a dyeing and weaving mill and a spinning and weaving company named Zhentai in Shanghai. It was one of the first vertically integrated Chinese industrial groups in the cotton industry. Furthermore, in 1931 the same group built Baoxing spinning and weaving mill. The three companies were managed by a network of merchants, yarn dealers and textile industrial experts and they contributed to the modern craze of high quality clothes that emerged in urban consumer markets such as famous Nanjing Road. Modern factories such as Dafeng were supposed to be the cornerstone of Chinese economic nationalism. But Dafeng also depended on a transnational network and its strategies soon diverged from the nationalist idea of modernization.

At Dafeng, the machinery was purchased and laid out by British engineers ; key regular supplies were obtained from foreign companies ; and sales were focused on the urban consumers of the International concessions. Besides, the threat of Japanese aggression impelled Shanghai merchants to adopt strategies that were often in conflict with Chinese nationalism, especially in regards to foreign trade. When the Japanese occupation finally materialized in 1937, Shanghai became an “isolated island” - a neutral zone in the middle of the battlefield. As the quest for survival intensified, the national identity of every company became a dangerous issue. The industrial group was merged with a transnational trading firm that was registered in Hong Kong named China Engineers Ltd. It was Dafeng’s main machinery supplier. While trade between Shanghai and the rest of China reached a standstill, the Dafeng group prospered by adopting transnational strategies and focusing on foreign trade. This situation continued until December 1941 when the Japanese occupied the International Concessions of Shanghai. Between 1942 and 1945, the industrial group survived with a minimum activity.

"Japanese Party Politics Today : How the "new" parties are changing the political panorama"

Prof. Dr. Hiroko Kudo, Visiting Research Fellow, German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer, Professor, Faculty of Law, Chuo University Tokyo

Abstract : Japanese political party system had long defined as “dominant party system” and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), “the dominant party”, was considered as “the twin of Italian Christian Democracy (DC, Democrazia Cristiana)” by Professor Giovanni Sartori, one of the major authorities of party system and party politics. This situation, however, has changed in recent years ; new parties have gained popularity and thus power, while the traditional parties have lost trust and thus support of the voters.

Starting with the unexpected victory of Nihon Shinto (New Party of Japan) lead by Hosokawa in 1993, the rise and fall of new parties in Japan has marked some important transformation in its party system. More recently, the Japan Restoration Party (Nihon-Ishin-no-kai) and then the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin-no-tou), founded by a controversial TV personality-lawyer tern politician Toru Hashimoto. A series of newly born parties was expected to construct the third pole, however they turned to be rather weak and fragmented ; thus some vanished very soon, and some, although they survived, had to find their position with the establishments.

The presentation tries to illustrate these trends, trying to clarify the reason of the rise and fall of new parties and their impacts to the existing party system.

Thursday 11 December 2014, meeting room R66, 2 pm to 3.30 pm

"Korean literature in the Chinese character culture and East Asia Cultural Exchange Database"

Abstract : During the Chosun period (1392-1910), the Ming and Qing Dynasty of China implemented a policy of seclusion, so Koreans learned the Chinese language from other Koreans with old textbooks used as a Chinese translator. Only ambassadors who were delivering national documents could travel to foreign countries. Delegations going to China were called jocheon (朝天) during the Ming Dynasty, and yeonheng (燕行) in the Qing Dynasty. In the yeon-heng-lok (燕行錄) during the 17th century, there was no conscious effort to learn from the Qing Dynasty. The delegations sent to Japan, called tongshinsa (通信使), passed on mainland culture to Japanese intellectuals. The written conversations between the intellectuals of the two countries were immediately published to convey the mainland culture to Japan. But travelling journals written by delegations are one-sided records of a single, so the content cannot be assumed to be entirely true. Hence the need to examine cheok-dok (尺牘, letter), which are two-way communication between the sender and receiver, to supplement the flaws of sa-heng-lok.

Thursday 4 December 2014, meeting room R66, 2 pm to 3.30 pm

"Gender gap and marriage market in India"

Bishnupriya Gupta, University of Warwick, Department of economics

Abstract : Son Preference characterizes many Asian societies. In India the use of modern technology has led to an artificially high sex ratio in favour of boys at birth and a large number of “missing women” in the population. Is this a modern phenomenon ? The paper uses Indian census data from 1901 and shows the prevalence of son preference in some regions of the country. This regional variation can also be found in the census of 2001 suggesting that use of modern technology has accentuated the bias in the sex ratio, but the bias can be traced back to the 19th century

The preference for sons creates a shortage of brides in the marriage market. Using the census1931, the paper finds that a low marriage rate for men in the regions that have a preference for sons. The long run changes show that a marriage squeeze has reduced the surplus of men in all regions ; however the regional differences in son preference and marriage outcomes remain the same in 2001.

Abstract : For more than 250 years, the Chinese empire was occupied by a military force, composed of Manchus, Mongols, and part of the Han rallied to them. They were members of Banners, which were basic military, social, and political organization, through which the Manchus imposed their rule over China. This resulted in a major split in Qing society between Bannermen (qiren) and ordinary people (minren). This talk will discuss how the main garrisons were located and organized in Beijing, provincial cities, and boarder areas in order to control the territory. Then, we will examine the main features of the Bannermen population, how it evolved till the end of the Qing, and the situation of the descents of these people today.

Thursday 25 September 2014, meeting room R66, 2.30 pm to 4 pm

"The East German ’Stasi’ and Vietnam : Between ’proletarian internationalism’ and distrust"

Martin Grossheim, Adjunct Professor, Passau University,Germany

Abstract : This presentation will examine how the former East German Ministry of State Security commonly known as ‘Stasi’ contributed to state building and “modernization” in North Vietnam by providing considerable aid to Hanoi’s security apparatus during and after the Vietnam War. At the same time, it will show that the mutual cooperation was not unlimited and present the monitoring of Vietnamese students studying in East Germany by both the North Vietnamese and the GDR’s intelligence apparatus as the most prominent example of mutual mistrust. The presentation draws mainly on untapped Stasi files on this inter-communist cooperation and official Vietnamese language histories of the Ministry of Public Security in Hanoi.[Affiche]

Program of seminars 2013-2014

3 July 2014, meeting room R66, 2 pm to 3.30 pm

"Women Playing Men : Same-Sex Relations in Republican Shanghai"

Jin Jiang, Professor, East China Normal University

Abstract : Although we have pretty good knowledge about the homoerotic and homosocial world of Beijing opera of the late Qing, we know very little about the same-sex culture of women’s Yue opera that flourished in Republican Shanghai. This talk looks at the homosexual aspects in women’s Yue opera against the background of the general Republican reformation of sex and gender relations. By juxtaposing the opera’s stage representations of heterosexual love by the same-sex cast with the off-stage homoerotic and homosocial relationships within women’s opera circles, we will explore a spectrum of possibilities for women in Republican-era Shanghai [Affiche].

Abstract : A market is not only the place where merchants, producers, and brokers meet to exchange goods ; it is also a place where the state interacts with individuals engaged in exchange. This presentation outlines the history of market creation, market regulation, and merchant group formation on the Chinese frontier to provide insights into the distinct profile of Chinese legal and economic history.

Thursday 20 March 2014, meeting room R66, 2 pm to 3.30 pm

"Modern Shanghai : the nexus of institutional experiments"

Debin MA, associate professor in economic history, London School of Economics (LSE)

Abstract : Shanghai in 1860-1940 had seen extraordinary economic growth and transformation in a short period of time. It was a city with three governments with distinctive national cultures and governance structures. [Affiche]

Abstract : Since the 1990s, Malaysia has become a new and increasingly important player in international higher education. Currently, around 100,000 international students are studying in Malaysia. Of these about 25 % originate from Africa, many others from South Asia, Arab countries, the member states of the former USSR, but also from South America and East Asia. According to the plans of the Malaysian government, the overall number is supposed to double until the year 2020, reaching 200,000. This is the current number of foreign students in China, which in return plans to reach 500,000 by 2020. Also Singapore and other Southeast and East Asian countries are currently pursuing similar strategies. The consequence is an increasing competition for internationally mobile students, challenging older players, such as certain European countries, the U.S., or Australia. This paper investigates the background of the Malaysian case, as well as some of the major issues and challenges behind this strategy of internationalizing higher education in Southeast Asia. [Affiche]

"Rolling Reforms in Kim jong Un’s North Korea"
Rüdiger Franck, Professor of East Asian Economy and Society and Vice Head of the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna Editor of the EJEAS
Thursday 17 october 2013, meeting room R66, 10 am to 11.30 am